Today's fire fighters are asked to fill many roles and operate on diverse emergency scenes. These scenes include structural firefighting, wild land firefighting, vehicular accidents, technical rescues, hazardous material exposures, and emergency medical incidents. All of these incident scenes present unique and different challenges.
Temperatures at the nozzle end of a hand line (i.e., the “tip of the spear”) can exceed 1,000° F. Such extreme temperatures make operating battery powered electronic devices such as high intensity lighting, infrared cameras, video cameras challenging because the battery power needed is prone to failure and even explosion at such extreme temperatures. Having a device that can protect electronics, particularly batteries and electronic data, at the leading edge of a fire suppression operation would allow firefighters access to critical electronic components where it is needed most. Likewise, monitoring current conditions and providing warning systems to alert fire fighters of hazardous conditions can be critical to avoiding injury and locating lost or incapacitated fire fighters.
Excessive temperature extremes, moisture, contaminated/flammable atmospheres, and other difficult and unknown hazards force fire fighters to use a minimum amount of tools that contain batteries and other electronic components subject to failure. Hand held radios, flashlights, and power tools are often undependable because of the harsh conditions. A related danger is the fact that these first responders often enter structures filled with natural gas and other hazardous materials sensitive to explosions related to static discharge or random, uncontrolled electrical impulses.
These fire fighters, operating in forward positions (tip of the spear), have the best vantage point to quickly and efficiently neutralize the threat, but are severely limited because of the nature of the tools with which they are currently equipped. Current prior art tools and techniques are not sufficient for the demands of the job.
While there have been attempts to equip fire fighters, paramedics, emergency medical technicians, and other first responders with helmet-mounted or body mounted video cameras. These cameras cannot presently be used at the leading edge of a fire suppression operation because of the extreme heat. In addition, these cameras are basically useless in low light/no light environments. They record what they see and in limited visibility situations they are unable to see much, if anything. The dynamic nature of these scenes would benefit from increased visibility and live video streaming to enhance communication and protect the privacy of all people on and in the vicinity of the emergency scene.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a device and method that overcomes the above problems. The device and method would provide a hands-free tool to assist fire crews involved in search, rescue, and fire suppression efforts. The device and method would provide enhanced lighting, video monitoring, and other sensory informational capability to be used in firefighting operations inside or outside a structure.